Our response to the suggestion that baseline testing may be introduced in 2016

"Given the considerable amount of expert opposition to the idea of baseline testing in England we are deeply concerned at the suggestion that it might still go ahead. The main reasons for opposing this include:

At the start of reception children will be of widely varying ages and developmental readiness - hence the tests would be misleading and statistically invalid

Children will run the danger of being inappropriately judged and labelled - with all the subsequent pressures on parents

Younger children are more likely to be diagnosed as having learning problems and this is especially so for the summerborn and boys

There may be a temptation for teachers to underestimate children’s achievement on entry in order to be able to demonstrate rapid progress later

Teachers will have to focus on the tests rather than the crucially important ‘settling in’ period

The EYFS profile already requires teachers to continuously monitor and assess children in all areas of learning, making these more formal, and inevitably less accurate tests, a waste of teachers' time and public money